[Carcinoid tumor of the liver]

Multiple primary hepatic carcinoid tumours of the liver was a chance finding at autopsy of an 81-year-old woman. There had been no signs of this or any other paraneoplastic syndrome in life. The tumour had a characteristic solid-alveolar structure (type A of Soga) with only a few atypical cells. Neuron-specific enolase and chromogranin were demonstrated immunohistologically in almost all tumour cells, but S-100 protein, human choriogonadotropin and serotonin in only a few. Peptides and alpha-fetoprotein, however, could not be demonstrated in the tumours. Electronmicroscopy revealed secretory granules of variable size and density in the cytoplasm of the tumour cells.